2007 Training Load

Here's my 2007 CTL chart. I started last November at about CTL=40. CTL is chronic training load, expressed as TTS/day. It's not an average, but a power function with a half-life of 42 days. (The yellow is total stress balance [TSB]. Check out the CTL spike and the TSB valley of doom that I endured for about a week after RAGBRAI in July.)




Anyway, you can see that it took me all winter last year with Peach Peloton rides on weekends (see the little spikes in the blue line from November to February that faded back during the following weeks) and riding the trainer and doing weight workouts on weekdays to get from 40 up to about 65 by the time the season got underway and I started working on some intensity.


This year I plan to use erg files, computrainer racing against others, and more riding during the week to prevent my CTL from dropping below about 70 or so. I'll also keep some intensity included in my weekday workouts. Hopefully, I'll be more prepared for intensity when next season's races start.


Also, I hope to maintain my current FTP of around 278 watts so that the Peach Peloton rides this year will give me an intensity factor of about 0.74 instead of the 0.85 that I got last year. The 0.74 should be more effective in giving me the endurance mileage that I need without requiring me to take so much time for recovery during the early part of each week. (Those numbers assume that my normalized power on Peach Peloton rides will be about 205 watts, like last year. If I work more at the front or if the rides are faster than last year, I might be looking at IF=0.85 again).